Pages

Thursday, 27 September 2012

TCT2012 show report and Industry growing pains.

I don’t
normally do wider 3D printing industry news on this Blog as it’s a technical
resource, but quite a few big things have happened over the last few weeks,
that have made many people look in a slightly different light on the whole 3D printing
industry. (Makerbot's decision to close source is discussed below)

Todd Grimm opened the show with his presentation of where the 3D printing and Additive manufacturing industry is in it's life-cycle in a nutshell, "we are not yet ready for consumers using 3D printers"

I had an
interesting & mixed experience at this years TCT show – Quite a different
one from last year, let me explain –

So last
year I visited TCT in a professional capacity with suit, shirt and tie, this
year I decided to go along as a Maker – Jeans and a Woolly Jumper – general
enthusiast to see what reception I would get from all these many (different
sized) companies looking to sell machines for the next desktop industrial
revolution to the ‘general public’

I’m calling
my dress code the ‘maker test’ would I get any attention at all from these companies?, I’m sad to say
generally most of the companies failed, ignoring me for people in suits that
actually had very little interest in their product offerings.

Last year,
only Bits from Bytes and A1 technology were representing the lower-end market
sector and entry level machines.

This year
was very different.

The A1
technology stand was empty; they didn’t turn up on Day 1.

3D Systems - Cube -

My very
first stop was on the 3D systems stand, just by accident, but the Cube was on
display at the front of the stand with the Cathy Lewis guarding the Cube
printer.

(Cathy
lewis is the 3D systems representative in the Cnet video shown lower down in this post, in an
interview with Makerbot on the Replicator at CES2012)

The Cube
was trying to print, but unfortunately very badly, the drive mechanism looked
like it was partially blocked resulting in terrible surface quality with lots
of little holes and pips where variable extrusion was occurring. It was also
printing very slowly and at one set speed (I estimate about 20mm/Sec), with
only slightly faster travel speeds.

What is it doing with that bridge? and why is the surface quality so bad. And why has it wasted Raft material on sections with nothing on them! - Poor software!

I stood
looking at the Cube for many minutes, many other people in suits asked the same
things time and time over, how much is it “$1300” says Cathy, do you have a
brochure, “no, sorry we don’t” – How much are the cartridges “$50 each, and they
can print about 10 of these” – pointing to a 1.5” high chess piece.

Finally,
after everyone else had gone I said to Cathy it was nice to see a big company
doing a reasonably low cost machine “yes, some people think we are crazy”.

I asked if
she likes the printed cases (pointing to a number of Raspberry Pi cases
scattered around the Cube printer) – “yes they are wonderful, people really
like them”

Do you know
who designed it? I ask, no says Cathy, Well I had a hand in it’s design, really
says Cathy, not really believing me. How did we get hold of it then asks Cathy...

Well, you
would have got it from Thingiverse, I said. At this point Cathy’s face says it
all, she looks really uncomfortable and clearly wants to stop talking to me as
soon as possible. We then briefly discussed what a Raspberry Pi actually was,
Cathy had no interest whatsoever, and I was left wondering how they were going
to sell and support this machine to the general user and enthusiast?

In many ways it was
worth going to the show just to see her face, in that moment and short conversation.

Makerbot
had the Replicator V1 at the show, I didn’t see it actually printing anything
all day, everyone else had running machines.

If you want to be a Makerbot Distributer, the Minimum order quantity is 10 machines and for that they will give you 25% discount, Makerbot has two resellers in the UK, and they were very keen to sign up more on these terms.

I was
fortunate enough to be standing on the Makerbot stand when Todd Grimm asked the
Senior American Makerbot Sales representative a few interesting questions, the
response coloured by recent events and the Replicator 2
launch.

Todd asked
about the Replicator 2, what makes this machine a pro grade (prosumer) machine
and how is it different from Version1?

Makerbot –
It’s now 100micron layer resolution and we have tightly controlled PLA printing
materials that deviate less than 100micron in size.

This
machine is PLA only, we have removed the heated bed so users can get printing
faster and we have a simple 3 point levelling system.

It’s also a
single extruder system only.

I was
thinking – That’s a lot to remove, why is it then so much more expensive than a
Replicator V1? And can’t a Replicator V1 do 100micron? It should be able?

When pushed
on the reason it was now a Pro machine, the support staff were talked up as the
main reason for Makerbot being different at the lower-end machines –
Thingiverse was also mentioned a lot in the conversations and is obviously very
important for them -

Makerbot –
“Some people will not like that we have gone closed source, but they all use
Thingiverse whether they like it or not, we have the biggest community”

The
discussion continued, I moved on.

Sadly, they
also failed the Maker test; I was reasonably ignored every time I went on their
stand. I didn’t pick up a Makerbot sticker… Where would I put it now?

Maketbot
are obviously seeing a change on Thingiverse, they are trying to focus on the
Terms of Service questions that also sparked up debate and fractures in the
community along with the bigger issue of going closed source – They even have their Lawyer trying to explain that ‘everything will be ok’ Trust us.

Can people
in the community trust a company that changes one of its most fundamental founding
principal’s?

Will
Makerbot’s new Pro-sumer customer appear, and will 3D Systems now be free to take
the entry level sector with the Cube? Do any of us now really care?

It’s never
a dull moment with 3D printing.

Remembering back - On
3Dprinting.com the blog post in Jan2012 stated this about the video below –

“This is a great
interview that shows the development in the personal 3D printer market and the
differences between the open-source product of MakerBot and the closed-source
product of 3D Systems.”

I
do now wonder how different 3D systems and Makerbot will look in Jan2013 at the
next CES?

If it's consumers or pro-sumers they are after then maybe the closed source 3D printer war has now started, while the open source community just marches on regardless, I hope Makerbot does not regret it's decision.

Also look
out for the comment about the Replicator case looking wooden, I bet they was
the point Replicator V2 got a metal overcoat!

3D printed Mug - Bits From Bytes had a separate bigger stand (last year just a corner of 3D systems) I spotted Ian Adkins and Ed Sells (Sells Mendel) walking around; they were doing a lot of research by the looks of things.

Another one from BFB, they ignored me and so failed the 'Maker test' this time around.

There was a lot of 3D scanners at the show, this chap with the beard was being 3D scanned with a hand-held unit.

Voxeljet printers are used by Car companies to make massive prototype parts.

Propshop model-makers Ltd - Passed the 'Maker test' with flying colours, he even showed me some secret new massive 3D printed models for a new film coming out on his iPad.

Another Voxeljet print

Ultimaker -

Yea! Ultimaker! - Always had their machines running all day! - They had the busiest stand out of almost everyone, including many of the really big names.

Very friendly people and amazing quality things on display, thanks Ultimaker you made my Day!

I also met Paul Candler on the Ultimaker stand, he has made some of the finest profiles for Netfabb. Ultimaker users are enjoying resolutions down to 20microns!

Needless to say Ultimaker passed my Maker test.

Leapfrog -

It's big, slow printing and looks like a BFB printer with a metal overcoat. I could not find out much more about it as they didn't talk to me :(

Fabbster -

Fabbster have a Closed source printer (Sintermask) that operates in a similar to most RepRaps, it has no heated bed at the moment and uses Rafts for prints. Quality is reasonable.

They have a patented stick deposit system, this is basically Injection moulded plastic sticks of material that are loaded into a magazine and snap together as they exit into a PTFE tube onto it's way to the extruder.

They have many materials including a flexible (soft PLA style) that was very nice to handle.

The machine is big and well built. They were very nice at the show and passionate about people using their printers and materials. They passed the Maker test and we chatted for some time about the machine.

MiiCraft -

I ended up with a very bad photo of the Miicraft printer, so I'll just show some of the printed objects.

Very nice people and happy to tell and show you everything about their resin based 3D printer.

Ships from Taiwan, UV resin is quite expensive, machine is $2200 but the results were stunning! - Very good, Maker test - pass

PP3Dp -

The PP3Dp printers are looking a little old now, but still performing well, if not a little slow to print.

Didn't talk much, they were not really communicating with the people showing interest.

They had some free samples of screw-pots and a few different machines. Maker test - Poor (D-)

Mcor -

Inside an Mcor 3D printer (not really a printer, it cuts models out of sheets of office paper)

They are all paper. I'm not sure it that's a good thing or not. They must be selling machines? and I expect they will do well in the movie industry, props, and animation maybe even some product design etc. but I can't quite see a good use as functional models and certainly not with consumers.

Very friendly and animated about their machines and low-cost process. Maker test - Pass

Lots of other companies were at the show, some interesting, others looking very dated. Most of the others ignored me.

About Me

Richard Horne (RichRap)
is an Electronics Engineer, Product Designer, Salesman, and Problem Solver
working in a wide range of industries and applications, across many platforms
and technologies for the last 20 years.